We have big taking Alyna to a doctor in Cleveland for the past couple of months. She is trying an alternative treatment for allergies that she has had great success with on her. This week, we had a huge breakthrough. Alyna was able to put egg on her skin with no reaction, then in her mouth with no reaction, and then she was able to eat a brownies and rolls with eggs cooked in them!! This is a huge thing for her considering previous to the treatment she would react by even being touched by eggs. It is a pretty exciting time for us. It is still early in the treatments, but this progress is pretty promising. Please keep Alyna in your prayers that her progress will continue! Here is a photo of her eating her first brownie baked with eggs!

On November 15th it was Michael and I's 6th wedding anniversary. I cannot believe it has been 6 years already! It feels like it is flying by! Michael surprised me with tickets to the BalletMet. It was a great ballet and I know it took a lot for Michael to swallow his pride and attend a ballet, so not his thing! Here is a photo of us ready to go.

I am so blessed to be married to such a wonderful man. He is a great husband and father and I really appreciate all that he does. I love him so very much and look forward to more happy years together! Here are a bunch of photos from our 6 years together!

November 10th was my 25th birthday. I got lots of great gifts and beautiful flowers and had a wonderful time. We had a small party with family members and cake to celebrate. Here are a few photos of the day.

Here is one of Lyna and I on my birthday. Lyna was so funny, I think she was definitely more excited about it being my birthday then I was!

Lyna wrapped this present all by herself for me, she was pretty excited and I think she may have used all of the tape!

Noah got tired after all the partying and fell asleep early in his chair!

And a photo of all my beautiful flowers I got! And if you are wondering, my dear mother in law bought me some green bananas to wake up to on my birthday (I LOVE green bananas and will only eat them that way!).

We did our gratitude tree again this year. I did it a bit differently this time to make it easier. Instead of having an actual tree that took up space, we put up one on the wall instead. It worked so much better and turned out pretty cute. Here are some photos, one of it when we had just started and another of it all full. This was a great way to remember all the many wonderful blessings in our lives and to have them as a reminder everyday!

We have a beautiful park near our house called Highbanks. It has lots of gorgeous nature trails, as well as the normal playground type stuff. We went today and took the kids since the weather was so beautiful! I took the opportunity to play with my camera a bit and tried to get some decent photos of the kids.

First, here are some photos of the kids in their cute Halloween day attire. Unfortunately, I only got one decent photo of Noah. He was pretty cranky that day and wanted nothing to do with my camera.

And here are some photos of the kids in their costumes before going trick or treating. You will notice that Noah is wearing another costume here. About an hour before we needed to start getting ready to go, I decided I didn't want to iron the suits I had made and Michael didn't really want to dress up again (and without him the costume is kind of ruined). So, off we went to 4!! stores on Halloween to find an extra costume (including one purely Halloween store) and this is the one costume we found in his size that would work. He won't wear anything with a big head on it (hence his disapproval of the lion costume). So, a "lil' devil" it was. Now, some of you that know me know that I have weirdness with dressing my kid as a devil. Not sure why, it just seems kind of weird to me, like I don't want to give the kid a complex or something. But, at this point, there was no choice. So, we dressed him up and called him a bat!! Of course, everyone knew he was a "lil' devil", but at least calling him a bat made me feel better haha. We had a very fun time trick or treating. Lyna was so into it this year, which was new and so fun to watch her be so excited!

The ward had a very fun fall festival the Friday before Halloween. They had a chili cookoff and trick or treat (was supposed to be trunk or treat, but was changed indoors because of rain). Michael and Noah went as Dr. Evil and Mini Me. Michael begged me to do this costume last year, but I refused because I had a cuter idea. In my refusal, I somehow managed to make a deal with him that he could do it this year. Now, let me tell everyone here and now, that I hate Austin Powers movies. Behind any horror movie ever made, Austin Powers is probably my least favorite movie of all time. I tried to back out on the deal by trying to do a family Wizard of Oz theme, but when Noah refused to wear the lion costume we had for him (and by refused I mean ran away screaming anytime it was brought out), my fate was sealed. I had to sew these costumes in less then 2 days with no pattern, going off a photo. Also, my sweet boy got his head shaved (not all the way thank goodness). But, despite it all, the costume turned out pretty cute. Lyna dressed as her original idea, Dorothy and I went as the oh so clever ultrasound machine, which you are welcome to go see a photo of on my sister-in-law's blog if you feel you need to. I cooked a pretty good pot of chili, if I do say so myself, but sadly it did not come home with the prize. I will be trying again next year!